Formative assessment

Peter ScalesPeter Scales

Lifelong LearningFurther and Higher Education www.peter-scales.org.uk

Why do we assess students?Are we assessing:students?their subject/ discipline learning?wider skills (including employability)?

Why do we assess students?

1. Certification of student achievement (normally summative)

2. The accountability of educational institutions (normally summative)

3. The promotion of learning through the provision of formative assessment and feedback

(Black and Wiliam 1998)

Summative and formative assessment

Summative assessment is: used for judgement assessment of learning

Formative assessment is: used for improvement assessment for learning

“…formative assessment and formative feedback should provide positive student learning opportunities, encourage dialogue and discourse between students and teachers, enhance the student learning experience and provide motivation for students”

She’s plagiarised that from Irons, A.

(2008:8)

What is formative assessment?

“Any task or activity which creates feedback

(or feedforward) for students about their

learning. Formative assessment does not

carry a grade which is subsequently used in

a summative judgement.”Irons, A. (2008:7)

“… any activity during a module which provides information to students and tutors on their progress.”Bloxham, S. and Boyd, P. (2007)

What is formative assessment?

Formative assessment

or

Formative activities?

“Formative assessment, used properly, is such an important part of the teaching and learning process that one could argue that it shouldn’t even be called assessment.

When we consider teaching and learning methods, many of them – questioning, case studies, projects – are also assessment methods.”

Scales (2008: 179)

Tutorials

"The tutorial, whether face-to-face or online, is concerned with the development of the student's powers of thought.“

"As a regular meeting ground for the checking of student progress, locating misunderstandings in lectures and an opportunity to give special scrutiny to a piece of the student’s work.“

Jaques, D. and Salmon, G. (2007)

Formative assessment/ activities (1)

Tutorials and seminars Case studies Concept mapping Feedback on observed activities (e.g. OSCEs

in Health programmes or observation of teaching on Teacher Training programmes)

Formative assessment/ activities (1)

Using higher-level questions and discussion ‘Critique’ sessions as used in arts subjects –

can they be adapted for use in other subjects? 3rd or 2nd year students ‘teach’ or ‘mentor’ 2nd

or 1st year students. Above all – discussing assessment, especially

formative assessment, with our students.

Teaching

Assessment

Learning

ReferencesBlack, P. and Wiliam, D. (1998) Assessment in Classroom Learning, Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy and Practice 5:1, 7 -73

Bloxham, S. and Boyd, P. (2007) Developing Effective Assessment in Higher Education: a practical guide Maidenhead: Open University Press

Irons, A. (2008) Enhancing Learning Through Formative Assessment and Feedback London: Routledge

Jaques, D. and Salmon, G. (2007) Learning in groups: a Handbook for face-to-face and online environments Abingdon: Routledge

Scales, P (2008) Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector Maidenhead: Open University Press